High Sierra Music Festival comparisons

[unclehoolio]

Fun, accessible festival in the first year at it's new location at the Nevada County Fairgrounds in Grass Valley, CA.  Very, very taper friendly.  I took the opportunity to run a variety of comparisons over the 3 days that I attended (Thurs - Sat), shout out to BLee and Patrick P. for the loaner gear!

All recordings were from performances at the Main Stage. Posting links so that y'all can have a blind listen, lmk your thoughts and guesses. Each link provided is to an individual source from the respective comparison.

Comp 1: Location, location, location.
Lebo & Friends (Thur 7/2)
2 sources:
- FOB, DFC: 481(DIN)-Oade HiDef mod Tascam HD-P2, mics @ 6'
- @FOH, 2' LOC (approx. 30' further back from FOB position): 481(PAS spaced approx. 50cm)-m148-F8n Pro, mics at 12'
Not identical rigs, but close enough to make this worthwhile. The important thing here is that each pair of mics was configured to fit the recording location vis-a-vis the P.A.
1.a @FOH vs FOB.flac
1.b @FOH vs FOB.flac

Comp 2: 481 vs B&K4011
Moga Family Band (Fri 7/3)
2 sources, @FOH, 2' LOC. Mics in the same mount, 42cm@65deg, at 12':
- 481-F8n Pro
- 4011-F8n Pro
2.a 481 vs 4011 (-zoom).flac
2.b 481 vs 4011 (-zoom).flac

Comps 3 (River Eckert) & 4 (Steel Pulse) - two double comps
(from Fri 7/3)
3 sources for each comp, @FOH, 2' LOC. All mics on the same stand, configured the same, 42cm@65deg, at 12'; approx. 8'vertical difference from the top pair to the bottom pair.
- 481-148
- 4011-148
- 481-psp2
I.e. one comp from each band/set is different mics (481 and B&K4011) into same preamp, and the second comp is same mics (481) into different external transformer-based preamps (m148 & psp-2).  Widely divergent types of music and mixes across the 2 sets.  The bass for Steel Pulse was 'vibrate my bone marrow' loud.
3.a 481-148 vs 4011-148 vs 481-psp2.flac
3.b 481-148 vs 4011-148 vs 481-psp2.flac
3.c 481-148 vs 4011-148 vs 481-psp2.flac

4.a 481-148 vs 4011-148 vs 481-psp2.flac
4.b 481-148 vs 4011-148 vs 481-psp2.flac
4.c 481-148 vs 4011-148 vs 481-psp2.flac

Comp 5: minimalist rigs
2 sources, both @FOH, 2' LOC. Mics on same stand, at ~12', both spaced 42cm@65deg
- 481-Oade HiDef mod HD-P2
- cmc122-F6
Just for fun, a comp for when I want to run a smaller footprint / simpler rig and just 1 pair of mics.
5.a 481-hdp2 vs cmc122-F6.flac
5.b 481-hdp2 vs cmc122-F6.flac

For all recordings, the only processing done in post- was to adjust levels so that they were as matched as possible.  I have a couple of pics that show the mic setups for comps 3 & 4 and 5 respectively, but have never been able to figure out how to upload pics to a post so...

LMK if you have trouble accessing the files.